Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment

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Recommended: The effect of child abuse on children's development

Every day worldwide thousands of helpless, innocent children are taken advantage of by the ones whom they trusted most. The abuse of children has become just as prevalent as the abuse of women. Here in America in New York City for example “an average of two children dies every week from abuse and neglect” (Stoesz and Karger). The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) (Child Welfare Information Gateway)has a positive impact on American society by punishing criminal, protecting children, and promoting awareness. According to CAPTA a child is “someone who has not reached the age of 18 or the age specified by the child protection law of the state in which the child resides”. Children under the age of five are more likely to be abused because they are more vulnerable and easily accessible to sexual predators. Child abuse is the exploitation or harm of a child by a parent, close family member or caretaker.
What are the extenuating circumstances that cause one to abuse feeble, naïve children? There is a variation of reasons as to why one might do so. One particular reason, but certainly not an excuse, is due to unstable mental health which can be genetically inherited.
“Child maltreatment was at one time, broadly defined to include: physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect” (Stoesz and Karger). Today there is a handful more classifications under the term abuse. Four primary types include physical, sexual, neglect and emotional abuse. Physical abuse is violent or hostile behavior resembling bruises from beating, choking, kicking, punching, shaking or other harmful things toward a child. Sexual abuse is activities by a parent or caretaker sexually exploiting a child or incest with one. Neglect is the failure to meet a chi...

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...rrection. Department of Corrections Washington State. 2012. 19 December 2013 <>.
DesLauriers, Austin T. "Kansas' Sex Offender Treatment Program." Corrections Today 64.4 (2002): 1-7.
Feiring, Candice and Lynn S. Taska. "The Persistence of Shame Following Sexual Abuse: A Longitudinal Look at Risk and Recovery." Child Maltreatment (2005): 337-349.
North Carolina Department of Justice. "THE NORTH CAROLINA." Law Enforcement Liaison Section. August 2013.
Otterman, Sharon. "Therapist Sentenced to 103 Years for Child Sexual Abuse." NY Times 22 January 2013: 1.
Schulte, Brigid. "Child abuse found to alter brain; Harm can last for life." Washington Post 13 September 2013: A.3.
Stoesz, David and Howard Jacob Karger. "Suffer the Children: How government fails its most vulnerable citizens, Abused and neglected children." Washington Monthly (1996): 20-25.

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